Photo: Handout via the Guardian.
You can take hikes with goats. Why not enjoy time with lambs, too?
I’ve been saving an article from the Boston Globe for some future birthday, when I’ll talk my family into joining me in a hike with goats. It’s a service that a goatherd here in Massachusetts offers, and I think it might be fun.
But now I’m learning about spending a weekend with lambs. Maybe that would be even more fun. But I would have to fly to England, and I’m down on air travel.
Sally Howard writes at the Guardian, “In a shed in the Malvern Hills, lambs struggle clumsily to their feet as holiday-making couples look on.
“Clare John, the third generation in her family to farm these 50 acres of Worcestershire pasture, began offering lambing-themed breaks two years ago in response to a surge of customer requests. Rowley Farm’s holiday cottages are block-booked for the 2025 spring lambing season, which traditionally peaks around Easter.
“ ‘For farmers like me it’s a bit strange to treat sheep like pets,’ John said. Self-catering guests arrive at Rowley Farm from February to May to feed hay to her pregnant ewes, and to bottle-feed orphan lambs who have been abandoned by their mothers or are the thirds in triplets (which ewes can struggle to feed).
“ ‘Mostly the guests want to touch and cuddle the lambs rather than do the mucking out,’ she said. …
“Farm Stay UK, a co-operative for farmers in hospitality, said that 90 of its 400 members now offer ‘lamb watch’ holidays. A number of farms are expanding their lambing offerings for 2025. … Church Farm in Lancing, West Sussex, offers evenings with the ‘shepherdess team’ where visitors can feed lambs and watch out for live births.
“Some put this popularity down to the effect of TV shows … or the growth of live-stream lambing cams such as lambwatch.co.uk and Walby Farm Park’s Lamb Cam Live.
“Farmer Helen Hearn introduced lambing-shed slots for visitors in 2023 after demand began to outstrip capacity at 450-acre Penhein Farm in Monmouthshire. Guests accompany Hearn – checking the sheds for births, ensuring lambs in the field are paired up with their mothers and bottle feeding the lambs – at a charge of £45 [~$60] for up to eight people a shed. ‘We charge for lambing as it takes four times as long to do our farming rounds when the public is involved.’ …
“She thinks lambing breaks answer a human need for connection to nature. ‘In previous generations most British people would have an aunt or cousin who worked on a farm and would be around farm animals that way,’ she said. ‘That’s all gone now.’
“Hearn said she wouldn’t install a lamb cam for the public to witness live births, however. ‘Often I’ll get a delivery that’s tricky … and the vet needs to come for a caesarean or the lamb comes out dead,’ she said.
“TikToker and amateur lambing enthusiast Melissa Arnold, AKA @melissalovessheep, refers to herself as ‘a crazy sheep lady.’ The graphic designer has volunteered for lambing season at her local farm, Readstock in Bagber, Dorset, since 2022. With no prior farming experience, Arnold has now delivered and raised more than 90 lambs. …
“ ‘I discovered lambing when I was going through a tricky period in my life and it’s total escapism for me,’ she said. However, she points out the hobby isn’t all gamboling newborns. ‘It’s an everyday soap opera in the lambing shed. Lambs and ewes die regularly, and you have to learn to handle that.’
“In Hampshire, farmers Fran and John Drake have had to take on additional staff, including veterinary students, to cope with surging demand for lambing stays at Michelmersh Manor Farm, a family-run mixed arable, dairy and sheep farm where 140 lambs are expected this April. ‘We have one London family coming back for their fourth lambing season,’ Fran Drake said. …
“Michael Gibbs, who has farmed at Mill Farm in Middle Tysoe, Warwickshire, for 50 years, welcomes local schoolchildren into his lambing sheds but is unconvinced about turning it into a spectator sport. Farming is a business, after all. ‘The French have a taste for British lamb at the moment and prices are up 30% on 2022,’ the 73-year-old said, passing a trailer of hoggets (sheep between one and two years old) off to market. ‘That’s what the job is at the end of the day. It’s not all cuddles.’ ”
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